Fee waivers (meaning that the application can be made without paying the fee) are available for people who are outside the UK and who are
The Court of Appeal has given some guidance on the application of the exceptional assurance policy put in place during the pandemic and has concluded
Despite the expansion of the Legal Services Act in 2022 to allow for pro bono costs to be awarded in tribunals, many legal professionals remain
Emotions can run high in any litigation. In a case arising from unlawful detention, like Mlundira v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025]
The Administrative Court has set some boundaries and given a warning of potential sanctions to the GLD regarding the withholding of charter flight details in
In a fairly unsurprising decision, the Upper Tribunal has said that indefinite leave to remain obtained by deception and subsequently revoked cannot be counted as
The presidents of the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) and First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) have published the Joint Presidential Guidance No. 1
An unrepresented claimant has been unsuccessful in her challenge to the Home Secretary’s decision to void her indefinite leave to remain application because she submitted a
Immigration applications are extremely expensive. Most requests for permission to stay in the UK (other than under the points based immigration system) now cost £1,258.
In Branco-Bonfim v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWCA Civ 1421, the Home Office sought to remove a Portuguese man without giving
There is now only a month left before all biometric residence permits and biometric residence cards will expire on 31 December 2024 and understanding of
The Senior President of Tribunals has issued a new Practice Direction of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal taking effect from 1
The Court of Appeal failed to seal the applicant’s notice in a case, resulting in an almost two year delay. The applicant was asked to
In a decision on an interim relief application in an age assessment judicial review, the Administrative Court has reiterated the requirements of the Civil Procedure
It was recently reported that the passport application for a British child was refused over “copyright infringement”. The child in question’s name was Loki Skywalker
In this post I explain the variety of reasons that it is a very bad idea to submit a fee waiver application purely for the
If a migrant makes a valid application to extend their leave (permission) to be in the UK before it expires, their existing leave will be
The roll out of eVisas is likely to have the biggest adverse impact on those people who hold a “legacy” document, i.e. evidence of their
You’ve left extending your visa until the last minute and are now in danger of missing the deadline. Does this matter and is there anything
There is a lot that remains unclear about the Home Office’s introduction of eVisas, below we shed light on what we know so far about
The Court of Appeal has, for the third time this year, had to intervene where the Upper Tribunal has failed to do so, in a
In JR v Advocate General for Scotland [2024] CSOH 64, the Court of Session has encouraged greater use of the powers to transfer a judicial
The High Court has held that the decision made by Suella Braverman not to implement recommendations made in Wendy Williams’ review into the Windrush scandal
The High Court has held that, when judicially reviewing a decision of the Upper Tribunal refusing permission to appeal (known as a Cart judicial review),
Two claimants, the charity Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex and London “RAMFEL” and Ms Adjei, have succeeded in a judicial review where it was
The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal alleging procedural unfairness in a First-tier Tribunal hearing where the judge asked a “significant” number of questions.
Immigration law is constantly changing and the Home Office updates its guidance documents accordingly. Sometimes you will need to look at an older version of
A man who had lived in the UK for over 20 years and was married to a British national before the relationship broke down has
As I explained in a previous blog, in its June 2023 judgment in AAA & Others v SSHD, the Court of Appeal accepted Asylum Aid’s
In Al-Azad v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWCA Civ 407 the Court of Appeal has said that paragraph 322(1A) of the
The High Court has heard three Hamid referrals, two of which concerned asylum cases and one of those resulted in a referral to the Solicitors
The government continues to try to maintain its ability to redact the names of junior civil servants in judicial review proceedings and the courts continue
We previously covered the High Court’s decision that routine redactions of junior civil servants’ names in judicial review disclosure was unlawful, and the Court of
The latest in a rash of recent cases displaying poor behaviour on the part of the Home Office is R (Amena El-Ashkar) v Secretary of
In Zhou & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWCA Civ 81 the Court of Appeal has re-affirmed the high threshold
It is well established that the requirements of procedural fairness will very often require that a person who may be adversely affected by a decision
Bill Gates once said that your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. If the same applies to the Home Office staff who
Digital technology plays a central role in the ongoing reform of British borders after Brexit, and the 2019 launch of the EU Settlement Scheme was
A student whose leave was cancelled on arrival was wrongly denied the opportunity to comment on an allegation of falsified English language qualifications. So held
The Home Office is increasingly treating asylum claims as being withdrawn. This seems to be a new policy intended to reduce the asylum backlog. The
Fee waivers (meaning that the application can be made without paying the fee) are available for people who are outside the UK and who are making certain types of entry clearance applications but cannot afford the fee. This is important as the fees are set at a level that is...
The Court of Appeal has given some guidance on the application of the exceptional assurance policy put in place during the pandemic and has concluded that it could not be relied on by the appellant, notwithstanding the fact that the Home Office had issued him with a letter granting a...
Despite the expansion of the Legal Services Act in 2022 to allow for pro bono costs to be awarded in tribunals, many legal professionals remain unaware of the scheme. Pro bono costs orders are an untapped resource within the legal profession, with unfulfilled potential to help close the funding gap...
Emotions can run high in any litigation. In a case arising from unlawful detention, like Mlundira v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025] EWHC 189 (KB), the stakes and emotions can be heightened. This case underlines how important it is to consider and respond to correspondence from the...
The Administrative Court has set some boundaries and given a warning of potential sanctions to the GLD regarding the withholding of charter flight details in removal cases. The case is R (Jasseh) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025] EWHC 47 (Admin). The claimant was issued with removal...
In a fairly unsurprising decision, the Upper Tribunal has said that indefinite leave to remain obtained by deception and subsequently revoked cannot be counted as “continuous lawful residence” for the purposes of an application for indefinite leave to remain based on ten years’ residence. The case is R (on the...
The presidents of the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) and First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) have published the Joint Presidential Guidance No. 1 of 2024: Appointment of litigation friends, to help those who lack capacity to conduct their own tribunal proceedings. In the immigration tribunals context, the power...
An unrepresented claimant has been unsuccessful in her challenge to the Home Secretary’s decision to void her indefinite leave to remain application because she submitted a second application to the EU Settlement Scheme. The decision was not communicated to the claimant until it was disclosed during her appeal against the...
Immigration applications are extremely expensive. Most requests for permission to stay in the UK (other than under the points based immigration system) now cost £1,258. In addition, applicants may need to pay an immigration health surcharge (£1,035 a year for adults and £776 for children). On average, therefore, migrants will...
In Branco-Bonfim v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWCA Civ 1421, the Home Office sought to remove a Portuguese man without giving him an in-country right of appeal, by relying on a certification decision relating to his deportation in 2019 rather than issuing a new certification decision....
There is now only a month left before all biometric residence permits and biometric residence cards will expire on 31 December 2024 and understanding of the changes among those responsible for enforcing the hostile environment remains dangerously low. From 1 January 2025 onwards, individuals will be expected to show their...
The Senior President of Tribunals has issued a new Practice Direction of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal taking effect from 1 November 2024. This replaces the previous version dated May 2022. The new version is considerably longer, up from 12 pages in the previous version to...
The Court of Appeal failed to seal the applicant’s notice in a case, resulting in an almost two year delay. The applicant was asked to make the application again and request an extension of time. When he did so there was then incredibly another two year delay in the Court...
In a decision on an interim relief application in an age assessment judicial review, the Administrative Court has reiterated the requirements of the Civil Procedure Rules on expert evidence and in particular the need to make an application to rely on this as soon as possible. The case is R...
It was recently reported that the passport application for a British child was refused over “copyright infringement”. The child in question’s name was Loki Skywalker Mowbray and he was born on 4 May (also known as Star Wars Day for the uninitiated among you). You will be unsurprised to hear...
In this post I explain the variety of reasons that it is a very bad idea to submit a fee waiver application purely for the purpose of getting section 3C leave, with no eligibility for or intention of making the subsequent immigration application mentioned in the fee waiver application. The...
If a migrant makes a valid application to extend their leave (permission) to be in the UK before it expires, their existing leave will be rolled over until a decision has been made on the application, even if this is after the original expiry date. This is commonly known as...
The roll out of eVisas is likely to have the biggest adverse impact on those people who hold a “legacy” document, i.e. evidence of their immigration status that was issued before the introduction of biometric residence permits. One of the reasons for this is that there is an additional step...
You’ve left extending your visa until the last minute and are now in danger of missing the deadline. Does this matter and is there anything you can do about it? The answer to the first question is a resounding yes. Fortunately, in most cases, the answer to the second question...
In JR v Advocate General for Scotland [2024] CSOH 64, the Court of Session has encouraged greater use of the powers to transfer a judicial review to the Upper Tribunal and laid out what factors might be relevant in making that decision. In Scotland, all applications for judicial review are...
The High Court has held that the decision made by Suella Braverman not to implement recommendations made in Wendy Williams’ review into the Windrush scandal was unlawful. The recommendations specifically related to the creation of a Migrants’ Commissioner role and the review of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and...
The High Court has held that, when judicially reviewing a decision of the Upper Tribunal refusing permission to appeal (known as a Cart judicial review), there is no oral permission hearing. This was the conclusion reached in Karim v Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) [2024] EWHC 1368 (Admin). The...
Two claimants, the charity Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex and London “RAMFEL” and Ms Adjei, have succeeded in a judicial review where it was held that the Home Secretary’s failure to provide people on section 3C leave with digital evidence of their status was unlawful. The case is R...
The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal alleging procedural unfairness in a First-tier Tribunal hearing where the judge asked a “significant” number of questions. The court also gave a brief reminder of the importance of counsel raising any issues with judicial conduct during the appeal itself. The case is...
Immigration law is constantly changing and the Home Office updates its guidance documents accordingly. Sometimes you will need to look at an older version of the guidance that applied at a certain time but it is no longer on GOV.UK as it has been replaced with the new version. When...
A man who had lived in the UK for over 20 years and was married to a British national before the relationship broke down has been unsuccessful in his challenge to an entry clearance refusal on the grounds that he had not received the notice of curtailment. The case is...
In Al-Azad v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWCA Civ 407 the Court of Appeal has said that paragraph 322(1A) of the immigration rules (mandatory ground for refusal where false representations are used) applies to an application which has been varied by a later application in which...
The High Court has heard three Hamid referrals, two of which concerned asylum cases and one of those resulted in a referral to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Given the professional implications, any practitioner reading this should already be well aware of the Hamid jurisdiction, which is essentially a disciplinary process...
The government continues to try to maintain its ability to redact the names of junior civil servants in judicial review proceedings and the courts continue to tell them that they cannot do this. The latest instalment is MTA, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home...
We previously covered the High Court’s decision that routine redactions of junior civil servants’ names in judicial review disclosure was unlawful, and the Court of Appeal has now agreed with that in R (IAB and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department and Secretary of State for Levelling...
The latest in a rash of recent cases displaying poor behaviour on the part of the Home Office is R (Amena El-Ashkar) v Secretary of State for the Home Department JR-2022-LON-002069. This is a decision on an application by the Home Secretary to withdraw undertakings that had been provided to...
In Zhou & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWCA Civ 81 the Court of Appeal has re-affirmed the high threshold for challenging delays in decision-making by the Home Secretary and the scope of any appeal against a refusal to grant permission for judicial review. Background...
It is well established that the requirements of procedural fairness will very often require that a person who may be adversely affected by a decision is given an opportunity to make representations before the decision is taken with a view to producing a favourable result. There is a duty to...
Bill Gates once said that your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. If the same applies to the Home Office staff who have the unenviable job of fielding complaints about their colleagues from irate migrants and their lawyers, their enlightenment must rival that of any Renaissance polymath....
Digital technology plays a central role in the ongoing reform of British borders after Brexit, and the 2019 launch of the EU Settlement Scheme was a pivotal moment in this transformation. The EUSS introduced an online-by-default process to apply for immigration status and, crucially, an online-only process to evidence it....
A student whose leave was cancelled on arrival was wrongly denied the opportunity to comment on an allegation of falsified English language qualifications. So held the High Court in R (on the application of Tazeem) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 1828 (Admin), a case addressing...
The Home Office is increasingly treating asylum claims as being withdrawn. This seems to be a new policy intended to reduce the asylum backlog. The number of asylum decisions made by the Home Office at first glance appears to be increasing. When we look at the detail of the figures,...
